Exam question 4 · Lang's Fairy Book, Esben and the Witch: Esben roasts the w…

Specify the characteristic of the fairy Girouette which rendered her an unsuitable companion for the court.

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, characteristic · What happens: specify, render · To what, where: characteristic, unsuitable companion, Girouette

This is exam question 4 of lesson 1659 «Lang's Fairy Book, Esben and the Witch: Esben roasts the witch, saves his brothers and goes home» of the books course of Mova's primary school, asked in stiff, formal language. The page gives the question's syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause, then the 4 options as the student saw them, each with its tree and pragmatics. Every text is parsed by Mova itself. How the student answered it, with the score of every option and why: the test at school.

The question

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Specify	specify	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 characteristic	det
3	characteristic	characteristic	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Specify	obj
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 fairy	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 fairy	det
6	fairy	fairy	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 characteristic	nmod
7	Girouette	Girouette	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 fairy	appos
8	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	9 rendered	nsubj
9	rendered	render	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 characteristic	acl:relcl
10	her	she	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 rendered	obj
11	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 companion	det
12	unsuitable	unsuitable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 companion	amod
13	companion	companion	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 rendered	obj
14	for	for	ADP	_	16 court	case
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 court	det
16	court	court	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 companion	nmod
17	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Specify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	specify	imperative	you not said here	the characteristic of the fairy					vn characterize-29.2 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent characteristic=Theme
2	render	past	the characteristic of the fairy	a unsuitable companion	Girouette				vn give-13.1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent she=Recipient companion=Theme

One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

The options

Option 1

She could not hold any opinion about the weather or the crops for long

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	She	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 hold	nsubj
2	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 hold	aux
3	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	4 hold	advmod
4	hold	hold	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	6 opinion	det
6	opinion	opinion	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 hold	obj
7	about	about	ADP	_	9 weather	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 weather	det
9	weather	weather	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 hold	obl
10	or	or	CCONJ	_	12 crops	cc
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 crops	det
12	crops	crop	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 weather	conj
13	for	for	ADP	_	14 long	case
14	long	long	ADV	Degree=Pos	4 hold	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not hold	could	She	any opinion				about the weather or the crops	vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent opinion=Theme about weather=Location

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

She flitted from one whim to another so often that no council could ever trust a word she spoke at all

The tree, 21 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	She	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 flitted	nsubj
2	flitted	flit	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	from	from	ADP	_	5 whim	case
4	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	5 whim	nummod
5	whim	whim	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 flitted	obl
6	to	to	ADP	_	7 another	case
7	another	another	DET	PronType=Ind	2 flitted	obl
8	so	so	ADV	_	9 often	advmod
9	often	often	ADV	_	2 flitted	advmod
10	that	that	SCONJ	_	15 trust	mark
11	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	12 council	det
12	council	council	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 trust	nsubj
13	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	15 trust	aux
14	ever	ever	ADV	PronType=Ind	15 trust	advmod
15	trust	trust	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 flitted	advcl
16	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	17 word	det
17	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 trust	obj
18	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	19 spoke	nsubj
19	spoke	speak	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	17 word	acl:relcl
20	at	at	ADP	_	21 all	case
21	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	19 spoke	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	flit	past	She		one whim		to another; often property	vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme to another=Destination
2	trust	could	no council	a word		ever		vn conjecture-29.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent word=Theme
3	speak speech: other	past	council	a word not said here	all			tree rules

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

She never settled upon a single decision for more than two minutes

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	She	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 settled	nsubj
2	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	3 settled	advmod
3	settled	settle	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	upon	upon	ADP	_	7 decision	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 decision	det
6	single	single	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 decision	amod
7	decision	decision	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 settled	obl
8	for	for	ADP	_	12 minutes	case
9	more	more	ADJ	Degree=Cmp ExtPos=ADV	11 two	advmod
10	than	than	ADP	_	9 more	fixed
11	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	12 minutes	nummod
12	minutes	minute	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 settled	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not settle	past	She				minute	upon a single decision	vn correspond-36.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 4

She always changed her mind before anyone could agree

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	She	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 changed	nsubj
2	always	always	ADV	PronType=Tot	3 changed	advmod
3	changed	change	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 mind	nmod:poss
5	mind	mind	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 changed	obj
6	before	before	SCONJ	_	9 agree	mark
7	anyone	anyone	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Ind	9 agree	nsubj
8	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	9 agree	aux
9	agree	agree	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 changed	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	change	past	She	her mind	always property	vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mind=Patient
2	agree speech: agree	could	anyone			vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	mind		her = she			nom mind «cognition transitive»: poss=agent

Text: the tests of Mova's primary school, written for Mova (world/data/school/), as the course runner gave them to the student. Trees: Mova's own parse — the en model on the CPU, when the site is built — not checked by a teacher; they may be wrong. Frames: Mova's frames reader (prag), each text read on its own. Elamur Cosmic License.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1659-pg5615-part48/e4/